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Couple of questions on Science A-levels

Hey

Im in the process of deciding which A-levels to study next year

In the future, I wouldnt mind either going into Economics, or something like Dentistry/Medicine

I do have a few questions if anyone could answer them though =]...


For biology, is it all a memory game at A-level? (so ive heard...)


What would you say was the hardest Science A-level? (out of bio,chem and physics)


Would you be able to get into a medicine course with only Biology done to AS Level?



The A-levels im thinking of taking are:
Maths (w/Statistics)
Economics
Chemistry
Biology


^Not sure about biology though, might take Geography instead

Any advice would be great (:

Thanks

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The description of Biology at A-level as "a memory game" is incredibly crude; it is not that easy and I know quite a few people who did well at it at GCSE and have since found it quite hard.
Reply 2
Unknown-User
Hey

Im in the process of deciding which A-levels to study next year

In the future, I wouldnt mind either going into Economics, or something like Dentistry/Medicine

I do have a few questions if anyone could answer them though =]...


For biology, is it all a memory game at A-level? (so ive heard...)


What would you say was the hardest Science A-level? (out of bio,chem and physics)


Would you be able to get into a medicine course with only Biology done to AS Level?



The A-levels im thinking of taking are:
Maths (w/Statistics)
Economics
Chemistry
Biology


^Not sure about biology though, might take Geography instead

Any advice would be great (:

Thanks

if you want to do economics further maths is highly regarded by the top universities. DO NOT drop bio for geo if you want to do medicine, bio is not essential but will be very helpful for medicine. Chem to A2 is mandatory for the majority of med schools :yep:
Reply 3
The description of Biology at A-level as "a memory game" is incredibly crude; it is not that easy and I know quite a few people who did well at it at GCSE and have since found it quite hard.


Tbh, thats why many people said it was hard...because they had to remember everything :s-smilie:

vinsta
if you want to do economics further maths is highly regarded by the top universities. DO NOT drop bio for geo if you want to do medicine, bio is not essential but will be very helpful for medicine. Chem to A2 is mandatory for the majority of med schools :yep:



Thanks for the advice
Did you take further maths for Alevel?
If so, was it incredibly hard as many people say it is? :s-smilie:
Reply 4
Unknown-User
Hey

Im in the process of deciding which A-levels to study next year

In the future, I wouldnt mind either going into Economics, or something like Dentistry/Medicine

I do have a few questions if anyone could answer them though =]...


For biology, is it all a memory game at A-level? (so ive heard...)


What would you say was the hardest Science A-level? (out of bio,chem and physics)


Would you be able to get into a medicine course with only Biology done to AS Level?



The A-levels im thinking of taking are:
Maths (w/Statistics)
Economics
Chemistry
Biology


^Not sure about biology though, might take Geography instead

Any advice would be great (:

Thanks


A-level biology is so repetative. The exam was exceptionally hard. They expect you to literally remember every single sentance in the text (1/2 for each exam) to be able to get a decent grade. I'd much rather have picked chemistry now. I've heard its got a fair bit of maths but I don't think that would be a problem. I under estimated exactly how much information I would have to remember for biology.
Reply 5
Unknown-User
Tbh, thats why many people said it was hard...because they had to remember everything :s-smilie:




Thanks for the advice
Did you take further maths for Alevel?
If so, was it incredibly hard as many people say it is? :s-smilie:

Yes, I'm doing it now. If you're not naturally talented at maths, you will have to work a lot harder to get a decent grade. It's not something you can just remember really, like bio for instance. The new spec I hear is much easier since quite a lot of the hard stuff has been taken out, and you can now do FP1 using C1 and C2 knowledge only whereas FP1 for my syllabus (edexcel) is an extension of C4.
No Biology is no longer really a memory game.

There are other aspects to biology such as using data, talking about ethics and control experiments etc.
It's not as easy as you may think.
Reply 7
TheMeister
The description of Biology at A-level as "a memory game" is incredibly crude; it is not that easy and I know quite a few people who did well at it at GCSE and have since found it quite hard.


Seconded. I've posted many times how A-level biology changes drastically from GCSE - it is not longer simple concepts to 'learn' but endless numbers of complex and confusing abstract ideas to not only learn, but truly understand due to the applied questions they ask in exams.

It's a great subject IMO, interesting but don't get fooled into believing it's a simple memory game.
Biology is essentially a memory game at A-level (although there's a drastic change at university) but it's really interesting. :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by &#946
Biology is essentially a memory game at A-level (although there's a drastic change at university) but it's really interesting. :smile:



Thats what many people have said about Biology

Btw, can i ask what you got for your A-levels?

...Imperial xD
Unknown-User
Thats what many people have said about Biology

Btw, can i ask what you got for your A-levels?

...Imperial xD


If you're not sure if biology is for you then it might be a good idea to look at some specifications and see what sort of things you'll be studying. If it looks like the sort of thing that puts you to sleep then maybe biology isn't such a good idea as there is a lot of content to learn and if you don't enjoy the subject then it's an uphill struggle trying to memorise it all.

I got 4A's for A-level (Bio, Chem, Maths, ICT).
Reply 11
Original post by &#946
If you're not sure if biology is for you then it might be a good idea to look at some specifications and see what sort of things you'll be studying. If it looks like the sort of thing that puts you to sleep then maybe biology isn't such a good idea as there is a lot of content to learn and if you don't enjoy the subject then it's an uphill struggle trying to memorise it all.

I got 4A's for A-level (Bio, Chem, Maths, ICT).



Hmm thanks
Ill have a look on the AQA site now

tbh, I actually enjoy biology a lot, except for a couple of topics like Food chains and adaptations ¬_¬ lol

and I tihnk im doing quite well in Biology, doing triple science and i actually understand it (:
Reply 12
Biology is a memory game coupled with common sense. I find it incredibly boring, hence only revised for a day before my AS exam and ended up getting a C. I don't really care what i get tbh, i hate it.

If you like maths, do further maths, it's not really any more difficult than normal maths, athough I hear FP2 and 3 get quite hard.

I can't understand why people do maths and not physics, if you do M1 and M2 for maths you've basically done it twice because you do it all in physics too, I would have thought that the kind of mind required for maths would also be good at physics.
Reply 13
Biology is the subject with the least memory game aspect. It requires learning ''easy'' topics but the questions you're asked on them are harder and require more thought - I think.
Reply 14
Biology:
Lot to remember
Not difficult to understand
Very specific mark schemes
Can get very tedious

Chemistry:
Grade boundaries are always high
Quite alot to remember
Some of the maths bits can trip you up
Specific mark schemes

I only did physics to AS and didn't find it too bad, though I didn't put anywhere near enough effort in to get to the better grades.
I find chemistry more difficult than biology, mainly because the grade boundaries for chemistry generally
remain at about 80%, whereas in biology they tend to fluctuate between 65% and 75%.

My two cents...
Reply 15
Kinkerz
Biology:
Lot to remember
Not difficult to understand
Very specific mark schemes
Can get very tedious

Chemistry:
Grade boundaries are always high
Quite alot to remember
Some of the maths bits can trip you up
Specific mark schemes

I only did physics to AS and didn't find it too bad, though I didn't put anywhere near enough effort in to get to the better grades.
I find chemistry more difficult than biology, mainly because the grade boundaries for chemistry generally
remain at about 80%, whereas in biology they tend to fluctuate between 65% and 75%.

My two cents...


Thanks for the information =]

btw, i thought the grade boundaries at A-level were always like 80% for an A

or were you talking about the UMS scaling?

I dont get this marking system btw :s-smilie: lol
Reply 16
Kinkerz
Biology:
Lot to remember
Not difficult to understand
Very specific mark schemes
Can get very tedious

Chemistry:
Grade boundaries are always high
Quite alot to remember
Some of the maths bits can trip you up
Specific mark schemes

I only did physics to AS and didn't find it too bad, though I didn't put anywhere near enough effort in to get to the better grades.
I find chemistry more difficult than biology, mainly because the grade boundaries for chemistry generally
remain at about 80%, whereas in biology they tend to fluctuate between 65% and 75%.

My two cents...

That's the other thing I forgot about bio, the marks schemes are bloody stupid. You can give a perfectly correct answer but only get one mark out of three because you didn't write what's on the mark scheme.

Also you have to write essays for A2, which sucks balls.
Physics is suppoedly (from what i heard) the hardest of all a levels.

The majority of med schools will require chemistry through a level, bio usually as a supplemet up to a2, and then they'll state 'one more science' which usually means maths or physics, i think physics is preferred.

Biology is more worth doing then geog.

Chemistry is quite mathsy, one module in each year is pretty much based on equations (this is for OCR 2000 syllabus, which i'm doing now, but doubt it will change much). Biology is a bit repetetive, i dont think amazingly so, Chemistry is more repetitive because you have to redo all the organics from AS when going into A2.
The best med schools will most likely want four sciences (bio chem maths and physics), or 3 sciences with a highly regarded lit subject like history or something carried to AS. I would assume.
Reply 19
j09

I can't understand why people do maths and not physics, if you do M1 and M2 for maths you've basically done it twice because you do it all in physics too, I would have thought that the kind of mind required for maths would also be good at physics.


I do maths but not physics because at gcse i found physics a nightmare, i'm also doing stats and then discrete along with c1, 2, 3, 4, i took chemistry at the start but dropped it because it was nothing like the gcse complete opposite infact.

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